(1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates devices which manipulate electromagnetic radiation (EM) and more specifically relates to the field of coupling energy into identification devices such as RF (radio frequency) tags. The invention allows the tag to be decoupled (i.e. isolated) from surfaces which degrade tag performance, such as metallic surfaces. The invention relates to any EM tag, particularly those that rely upon propagating wave interactions (as opposed to the inductive coupling exhibited by magnetic tags). Hence our preferred embodiment involves application to long-range system tags (e.g. UHF-range and microwave-range tags).
(2) Description of the Related Art
Electronic devices which can transmit a modulated electromagnetic signal that can be detected by an appropriate reader are widely used for the identification and tracking of items, particularly for articles in a shop or warehouse environment. Such devices, which will be referred to throughout this specification as EM tags or simply as tags, generally comprise a chip coupled to an integral antenna which is tuned to a particular frequency of operation. The frequency of operation of current EM tags is generally radio frequencies (RF), including the ultra high frequency (UHF) and microwave ranges but the present invention is applicable to a tag which operates at any frequency. The tags may be passive, in that they interact with incident radiation of the appropriate frequency and re-transmit a modulated signal back to a reader, or active in which the tag contains its own power source.
One commonly experienced disadvantage with such tags, especially passive tags, is that if directly placed on (or within a several millimeters of) a metal surface their read range is decreased to unacceptable levels and—more typically,—the tag cannot be read or interrogated. This is because a propagating-wave RF tag uses an integral antenna to receive the incident radiation: the antenna's dimensions and geometry dictate the frequency at which it resonates, and hence tailor the frequency of operation of the tag (typically 866 MHz or 915 MHz for a UHF (ultra-high frequency) range tag and 2.4-2.5 GHz or 5.8 GHz for a microwave-range tag). When the tag is placed near or in direct contact with a metallic surface, the tag's conductive antenna interacts with that surface, and hence its resonant properties are degraded or—more typically—negated. Therefore, the tracking of metal articles such as cages or containers is very difficult to achieve with UHF RF tags and so other more expensive location systems have to be employed, such as GPS.
UHF RFID tags also experience similar problems when applied to certain other surfaces which interact with RF (radio frequency) electromagnetic waves, such as, certain types of glass and surfaces which possess significant water content, examples including certain types of wood with a high water or sap content. Problems will also be encountered when tagging materials which contain/house water such as, for example, water bottles, drinks cans or human bodies etc.
One way around this problem is to place a foam spacer between the RF tag and the surface, preventing interaction of the antenna and the surface. With currently-available systems the foam spacer typically needs to be at least 10-15 mm thick in order to physically distance the RF tag from the surface by a sufficient amount. Clearly, a spacer of this thickness is impractical for many applications and is prone to being accidentally knocked and damaged.
Other methods have involved the provision of unique patterned antennas which have been designed to impedance match a particular RF tag with a particular environment. For example, International patent application WO2004/093249 to Avery Dennison attempts to deal with this problem by using tags having antennas with compensating elements. The antenna is designed with surface effects in mind and is tuned to a particular environment or range of possible environments. This avoids the need for a large spacer but does require relatively complicated antenna designs which must be different for each tag, therefore adding to the cost and complexity of manufacture.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,995,048 describes an antenna design which minimises surface effects in which a quarter wave patch antenna is spaced apart from a much larger ground plane. The design does minimise surface reflection effects but the patch antenna is preferably spaced away from the ground plane by a distance equal to a quarter wavelength which is a large spacing and suffers from the same problems as for the foam spacer mentioned above. It also requires a large ground plane which may be not achievable in all circumstances. Further the patch antenna, which is a resonant circuit, must be carefully impedance matched to the tag resonating circuit in order to operate effectively.